Dick Morris visited Hannity last night (12/21/09) for a session of hate mongering and fear mongering about the health care reform bill. There was the predictable hate mongering about bribery and “there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat.” But then Morris added a little extra zip to his zingers by announcing, a la Sarah Palin, that as soon as the bill gets enacted, people will be told they won’t be able to get treatment for colon cancer when the medication is too expensive. Morris also announced that “if you’re particularly masochistic, (you’ll) pay four or five thousand dollars for health insurance you don’t need because whenever you’re sick, they have to cover you anyway.” So, Dick, does that mean you’ll be canceling your policy that same day? With video.

As if the discussion were not imbalanced enough with two conservatives, only, discussing the issue, the segment began with substitute host Mark Steyn (Remember him? He’s the Islamophobe who smeared the shooting victims at Virginia Tech) using a clip of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse talking about opponents of health care reform for the sole purpose of advancing a current right-wing smear, that Whitehouse had said that opponents of health care reform are Aryans and birthers. In reality, he said that some of the ardent supporters of Republicans are such and that they are “one powerful reason,” among others, that Republicans “are desperate to break this president.”

Nevertheless, Steyn played a clip of Whitehouse, edited to make it sound as though he were referring to all Republicans. Steyn said, “So if you oppose this health care bill, you’re a birther or a supporter of Aryan militias.” The clip had no relevance to the rest of the discussion. Its sole purpose seemed to be an (ill-deserved) opportunity to take a swipe at Whitehouse.

Morris began by saying that “the morning after it passes,” Americans on Medicare Advantage will have to start paying more and get fewer benefits. He added “If you’re uninsured, you’re going to have to write out a new $750 check to the government each year as a fine for being uninsured or, if you’re particularly masochistic, pay four or five thousand dollars for health insurance you don’t need because whenever you’re sick, they have to cover you anyway.”

“Right,” Steyn said.

Comment: Does that mean Steyn and Morris are going without health insurance? You can ask them at dickmorris@dickmorris.com and mark@steynonline.com. And wasn't Morris not-so-subliminally suggesting that viewers dispense with private health insurance and use "socialized medicine," the very thing he decried in the same interview, instead?

Morris continued with a page out of Sarah Palin's playbook, the one that was just pronounced "Lie of the Year" by PolitiFact, “And if you’re elderly, you’re going to go to your doctor and suddenly, there’s gonna be this big elephant in the room – the government. And he’s gonna say, ‘No, I’m sorry, you can’t get that hip replacement, you’re 84. And I think you only have two or three more quality years remaining, and the guidelines won’t permit me to do this… I’m very sorry you have colon cancer. Normally, you’d survive. But now you can’t because you’re not allowed to use this very expensive drug which was used a week ago before this bill passed.’ So those charming conversations are going to be going on throughout the United States.”

Steyn added his own dollop of fear mongering by saying, the bill is “all government and no health care… The point is, they’ve got the architecture for government control of your body and that’s what they’ve wanted all along.”

Morris said, “What they’re doing is venting this on the elderly… Those over 65… are going to see immediately a gigantic difference in their health care.”

Then it was time for Morris to dump on the Democrats. “I think that really, when we look at this whole process, we can come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. That fundamentally, all Democrats are Democrats, period. And that in any voter who says to himself, ‘I’m gonna vote for Nelson, I’m a Nebraska Republican but I’m gonna vote for Nelson because he doesn’t go along with that Washington crowd’ is just kidding themselves. Ditto in Arkansas. Ditto in Louisiana. The only reason that some of these Congressmen vote against the health care reform bill is because their votes aren’t needed. When their votes were needed in the Senate, every single one of them fell in line.”

Morris then congratulated himself by saying, “The pressure that we all brought and need to continue to bear saved America from socialized medicine.”